Contents

History

Early Life

Interested in music from a young age, mothy's parents bought him a folk guitar while he was in middle school; he later played bass for a band circle in college. Although working to become a professional bassist for the group, the band broke up while he was in his mid-twenties and he ended up taking a job as an office worker.

During this time, he watched videos of MEIKO posted on Nico Nico Douga and became inspired by the excitement surrounding Hatsune Miku's release for the Character Vocal Series in August 2007; he eventually aspired to compose his own music using the Vocaloid software.[1] Seeing how widely used Miku was at the time, mothy instead chose to buy the Kagamine Rin and Len in December 2007 and began experimenting with their voicebanks in early 2008.[2]

The Heavenly Yard

Akuno-P at a convention early in his career

After publishing his first few songs on Nico Nico Douga, mothy created his first major release, The Daughter of Evil.[3] Although initially not garnering much attention, the song became a hit following the release of its sequel, The Servant of Evil. mothy released Regret Message soon after, drawing connections to his previous two songs.[4]

In July, the increasingly popular Vocaloid producer, accepting his alias as "Akuno-P" in fan comments,[2] began posting the outline for the story he conceptualized on his blog, "the heavenly yard".[5] Around this time, he had already begun concepting a far more gruesome story and developed the idea of a more monstrous character.[6]

With the release of his seventh song, mothy began thinking about connecting his different songs and stories into one cohesive universe. By the end of the year, the idea became clearer in his mind with the release of Re_birthday. [7] Finally formulating the concept, mothy published his earlier dark story, Evil Food Eater Conchita, as the second song of his Seven Deadly Sins Series, tying The Daughter of Evil directly to the new series as the song of "Pride". Building upon his popular success with The Daughter of Evil Series, mothy continued with new releases for his different series.

Having alluded to connections in the past, especially with Evils Kingdom, mothy confirmed that Chrono Story was chronologically tied to Moonlit Bear, Tale of Abandonment on a Moonlit Night, and The Lunacy of Duke Venomania, and that the character Elluka Clockworker from Chrono Story was the same as the character seen in The Daughter of Evil light novels.[13]

Continued Work

mothy's stand at Comic Market 84

Finishing off his Story of Evil with The Daughter of Evil: Praefacio of Blue on March 23, 2012,[18] mothy already announced a follow up light novel series for the Seven Deadly Sins, starting with The Lunacy of Duke Venomania.[19] In July of that year, mothy also announced a manga related to the light novel would be released to promote the new series.[20]

In July of 2013, mothy revealed another new novel series independent of Evillious: Torture Tower Doesn't Sleep;[24] to promote the reveal and the series' first light novel, he posted a new song featuring VY1 to show off the three sisters of torture.[25] The month after, Akuno-P released the second act of his Original Sin Story,[26] followed by the light novel elaborating on the tale of his popular Evil Food Eater Conchita.[27]

Later in December, the first guidebook for the series was released, including the short story Heavenly Yard penned by mothy;[28] the guidebook similarly advertised the next two iterations of Deadly Sins of Evil for the summer of 2014.[29] As part of the promotion, mothy penned a collection of short stories relating to the changing season for select purchasers of the guidebook emailed to registrants from mid-February to March, 2014. To commemorate the release of the first manga volume adapting his The Daughter of Evil novels, mothy took part in a livestream with the manga's artist, Ichika.

Seven Sins Complete

Character layout for The Seven Crimes and Punishments website

In March of 2014, mothy posted a poem on twitter entitled "Nemesis", though discrediting its importance.[30] Later on in June, he announced that a new album would be released at Comic Market that summer with a new song in Seven Deadly Sins series,[31] soon after confirming that he would be uploading the song for "Wrath" to Nico Nico Douga during the same season.[32]

After the release of The Muzzle of Nemesis and its subsequent album during August,[33] mothy published his third Deadly Sins of Evil light novel for Gift from the Princess who Brought Sleep later that month.[34] As part of the promotion, mothy penned a new short story relating to the story of the novel for its purchasers, emailed to registrants throughout December, 2014.[35]

In mid-November, mothy announced he would have a line up of releases in each month from December until March, leading up to the release of Deadly Sins of Evil: Fifth Pierrot.[36] On November 29, Akuno-P teased a potential announcement for a new release in mid-December.[37] On December 12, mothy announced a new album entitled "Seven Crimes and Punishments" featuring all seven songs in his Seven Deadly Sins series to be released at the end of February, 2015.[38] Promoting it as his second major album release since Evils Kingdom, mothy advertised a limited edition of the album including a new 150-page short story written by him.[39]

Later on December 14, mothy took part in a livestream with artists Ichika and Tamara to promote the release of The Daughter of Evil: Act 2 and Quartets of Evil.[40] Later on during Christmas, mothy posted a preview of the prologue for the album's limited edition story. At the start of the New Year, the song producer tweeted his plans to upload videos for one or two songs for promotion of his newest album. Akuno-P later tweeted pictures on January 28 of his "secret" recording session with Asami Shimoda, the voice provider for Kagamine Rin and Len.

Thumbnail used for the Seven Crimes and Punishments PV

Several days later, he uploaded a PV for The Portrait Glassred Drew from the album. Following the song's release, mothy tweeted confirmation that another song video would be uploaded to celebrate the seventh anniversary of his song career. On February 13, the song PV for Seven Crimes and Punishments was posted, labeled as Clockwork Lullaby 7.

Less than a week later, mothy posted another video featuring Asami Shimoda's reading of a chapter excerpt from the Seven Crimes and Punishments story, including in the album that would be made available on iTunes. After the album and limited edition story were released on February 25, natalie posted its transcribed interview with Akuno-P. During the interview, mothy confirmed he currently planned to end his Evillious series in roughly five years. The month afterward, on March 19, mothy's light novel adaptation of Fifth Pierrot was finally published.

Afterward, mothy announced he would be releasing a new light novel unrelated to Vocaloid software, titled "Unlock City", and began advertising a new song to coincide with the album. On June 13, Akuno-P tweeted he would be attending Comic Market 88 and sell a new "Original Sin Story: Complete Edition" album at the convention. He finally published Unlock City on July 3 of 2015.

During a livestream for the upcoming Deadly Sins of Evil: The Tailor of Enbizaka in December, mothy confirmed he was working on a new PV for Ma Survival. In celebration of Seven Crimes and Punishments' first anniversary, the album's limited edition story was released in e-book format with a new extra chapter. Akuno-P finally uploaded the Ma Survival PV on May 4. A month later, Akuno-P announced he would release a new album at Comic Market 90.

Inspiration and Style

Usually, mothy comes up with his ideas while doing his regular activities such as walking, eating, and bathing.[41] He has also been inspired by video games and books he enjoys. Often, his works include elements of tragedy or macabre and commonly employ themes of escape, free will vs fate, and evil, the latter of which appears regularly in his Evillious series.[42] He also draws upon historical and mythological figures, events, and concepts when developing his stories.[43]

When asked about the creative process for writing the novels, mothy describes that he first writes out a rough synopsis of the plot and a list of all the characters that appear in the story, elaborating on their likes and dislikes, appearance and personality, strengths and weaknesses, even if they only play a supporting role in the overall plot.[44] Afterwards, he develops the environment and locations as well the current history and relationships between the different countries before delving more into the city and country mainly comprising the setting.[45]

Once the plot elements are interlaced, he rewrites a longer and more detailed synopsis, giving proper attention to which story elements he wishes to foreshadow when,[46] and then begins dividing the events by their individual scene.[47] If the final draft is too large, unnecessary scenes are cut to make the page allocation; the rough process is similarly employed to develop the stories for his songs.[48]

When developing the series themselves, Akuno-P conceptualized a rough flow of the plot and how his series will play out, saying he uses a general schedule for his overall plans for his series.[49] Despite this, mothy admits that several small and large portions of the plot were developed at the "spur of the moment" and built upon afterwards.[50] Due to the use of the Vocaloid software in his works, mothy often ties his characters' names and certain aspects to a certain Vocaloid or related software.[43]